Sunday, August 10, 2014

WWI USMC - Finally finished a few

I tried to reboot this project at the beginning of the year but it took the Lead Adventurers forum to get me to at least complete a few of them. This is the beginning of my second platoon all of these are from Brigade Games. The more I work on these the less happy I am with the sculpts. I still consider them to be much better than the Old Glory versions but I certainly wish that someone else was producing some better Marine sculpts. And yes I realize that I could just use US Army sculpts as Marines since Pershing would not allow replacement uniforms for the Marines, they were re-equipped with US Army uniforms, the because transition taking place during the fight for Belleau Wood. When the Marines were withdrawn for their short break from the fighting many received their US Army replacement uniforms. However, Marines fresh from the US came equipped with their Marine uniforms so there was quite a mix of uniforms by the end of the war.At this point I'm still painting everyone up in the standard Marine uniform which did differ from the Army one in more than just the color although the differences are subtle. After this platoon I'll start painting up some Marines in mixed uniforms and eventually Marines completely in the Army uniform.Here are the four that I have managed to finish over the course of three or four days:1) The Assistant Chauchat Gunner. He carries 4 extra 20 round magazines for the Chauchat Gunner. The Marine Corps printable nickname for this light automatic weapon is the Sho-Sho

The Chauchat Gunner. This one is wearing a British leather Jerkin. After seeing some pictures of an actual Chauchat this is an extremely bad sculpt of the weapon.

If you read this earlier, I'm completely revising this portion of the post. I mis-identified this miniature, it is not a Brigade Games miniature it is from the Great War Miniatures line. So that really is a M1917 revolver in his hand, although it still looks like a Ray Gun. He is out of the US001 Officers and NCO pack.

The standard US Marine Corps Rifleman. He carries something vaguely resembling the M1903 Springfield Rifle or maybe a M1917 Remington (It was a re-chambered Enfield Rifle which the US was already producing),

I tried a couple of different things on this batch of Marines and I'll carry them through with the other 14 minis that make up this platoon.For the Uniform:Shade: US Olive Drab (Vallejo 889)Base : Olive Grey (Vallejo 888) and German Fieldgrey WWII (Vallejo, can't read the number anymore)Highlight: Highlight Germ I (Vallejo Panzer Aces 338)Web Belts, Pouches, CoversShade: Green Brown (Vallejo 879/114)Base: Terran Khaki (Reaper MSP 9122)Highlight: Khaki Highlight (Reaper MSP 9123)PutteesQuite honestly I don't remember what I used. However, I'm going to try Reaper's Bone Triad on the next bunch, which will give them a grayer look I think.I also tried out some weather chalks on these. I really wanted the mini to blend into the base more so from my assortment of Pan Pastels I used Raw Umber Shade and applied it first as an undercoat over the puttees and pants then followed it up with a lighter shade of raw umber and then a final dust of yellow ochre shade. I'm afraid the effect might be to subtle to see in the pictures although it does really help blend the minis in with the base. I think the overall effect is most visible on the rifleman and the officer (especially on the back).So there now there are some more finished Marines. I think I'll go ahead and start another set of four today!